The coming of the Northern Railway Line

Beecroft and Cheltenham each owe their existence to the coming of the railway. In the mid to late nineteenth century there was a railway heading north west from Newcastle and railways heading west and south from Sydney but nothing connecting the two. Henry Copeland was a member of Parliament representing the northern goldfields and said in 1878 that the northern railway was:

“the most important piece of railway that could possibly be taken in hand by the government.’

A proposal to build a northern line was introduced in 1881. It was costed in excess of 2.75 million pounds.

Construction of the railway commenced in 1883. While most of the material did not come from this locality some of the ballast did come from a quarry between Cobran and Day Roads in Cheltenham and a siding was built to carry the ballast to the new line. The new line was opened on 17 September 1886. Due to the strain on the single line the tracks were duplicated in 1892. At this time a goods siding was added at Beecroft between the new platform and the Copeland Road Bridge.